Article written by Hannah Wurz

Adrian Halter, son of Curtis and Theresa Halter, is yet another successful product of west central Saskatchewan. Himself and Jenn Sharp recently won an award at the Yorkton Film Festival. He grew up in Luseland, where his passion for filmmaking began.

“I started watching a lot of movies. There was a store in Saskatoon called A&B Sound and they could order any movie you wanted. When I was 14, I saved up enough money to buy my first video camera from there. I started making little movies with my friends and my passion just kept growing from there.”

His docuseries Flat Out Food recently won the Best of Saskatchewan award at the Yorkton Film Festival. This is not the first time his series was recognized; they were selected by the Government of Canada to represent Saskatchewan at the 2021 Frankfurt Book Fair in October. Their project was also displayed on the Government of Canada’s website, surrounded by many renowned authors and producers such as Margaret Atwood.

“I’ve always loved cooking shows, and as I got a bit older, I started to love documentaries. I met Jenn through some work that I was doing, and she was writing a book about food in Saskatchewan. I told her about my idea, and we merged them together to create Flat Out Food.”

Sharp and Halter pitched their idea to City TV, who gave them funding to create a demo for the series in 2019. Due to the pandemic, the show was delayed production, but was released in February and March of 2021. Season 2 for the show is currently in post-production and is scheduled to be released at the end of February in 2022. Reruns of Flat Out Food still run on City TV and can be found on their website as well.

“It really is my dream project. I’m so happy with what we are creating and the stories we are telling. It’s easy to get a little bit down on Saskatchewan if you have dreams of a career that doesn’t fully exist here, but I’ve met so many passionate people here and it reinvigorated my passion for what I do.”

One person who was particularly important to him was Steve Allan. Allan was the vice principal at Luseland School while Halter attended. Halter pointed out that Allan helped him look at various schools and programs that he could attend. He knew that he wanted to attend university, and the University of Regina was one of the few schools that offered the program he wanted to take. Halter has a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film from the U of R.

Many small-town success stories have originated in west central Saskatchewan. Adrian Halter’s story is another example of how his career dreams became a reality with hard work. The community of Luseland is proud of Halter’s achievement and will continue to cheer him on as he explores future projects.